


idiots in love

by mabi_lune



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Jon is clueless, M/M, Martin is equally clueless, Season 1 TMA, both are very awkward, fluff was what I needed so that's what I wrote, someone please help them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22469134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mabi_lune/pseuds/mabi_lune
Summary: Jon thought he might die right then and there, on his first day as Head Archivist, when he saw that Martin has been assigned to be his assistant. He could see his obituary already: Jonathan Sims, recently promoted at the Magnus Institute, passed away when he realized that Martin ‘maybe-more-than-just-a-crush’ Blackwood would be working with him.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims
Comments: 42
Kudos: 308





	idiots in love

**Author's Note:**

> The one thing I love more than Martin pining after Jon, is Jon pining after Martin, so please enjoy <3

Jon thought he might die right then and there, on his first day as Head Archivist, when he saw that Martin has been assigned to be his assistant. He could see his obituary already: Jonathan Sims, recently promoted at the Magnus Institute, passed away when he realized that Martin ‘maybe-more-than-just-a-crush’ Blackwood would be working with him.

It wasn’t like they hadn’t worked together in the past, they’d been in the same department after all, but the Archives’ team was much smaller, and Jon could tell that avoiding Martin would not be as easy a task as it had been previously. Before, Jon could steal glances at Martin discreetly by looking up from his desk across the room, and they didn’t work so closely together that Jon had ever to interact much with the man, allowing him to quietly catalogue all of the things he liked about Martin without ever having to confront those feelings directly. That would be more difficult now though. Including himself, there were now four of them working down here in the Archives, and somehow Jon knew that his glances at Martin would be much more noticeable within such a small group. It served him right though, Jon knew. He had been foolish to think that he could escape the complicated feelings attached to this crush by simply changing departments. Still, it seemed like a cosmic joke to force him to be so close to Martin every single day. Worse even, to have to boss him around.

Perhaps it would have been simpler if Martin had been better at his job. Then Jon wouldn’t have had to pay him as much attention. But no, of course Jon was attracted to a man who was more attuned to how everyone took their teas than to how statements should be organized and researched. Of course Jon had fallen for a man who was clumsy enough to have misplaced two tape recorders in his first three weeks, forgotten to file away updated statements, and who also relentlessly attempted to convince Jon that maybe the woman who claimed to have seen “a cat cursed by Satan” could be telling the truth. And that meant that whenever Jon talked to Martin now, it was more often than not to tell him that he had done such and such thing wrong. And even Jon, with his limited romantic experience, knew that that wasn’t quite the best way to get close to someone.

Besides, it wasn’t like Martin wasn’t smart, or like he wasn’t the most empathetic person Jon had ever met. He was actually much more clever than his archiving skills suggested, Jon knew. In just a few weeks, Martin had learned all about Tim and Sasha’s personal lives, memorized everyone’s birthdays and the holidays they celebrated, and knew exactly when someone needed a chat or a mug of tea throughout the day. He made small talk with statement-givers, and ensured that they had always had a few minutes to calm down after giving their stories, before having to head out once more into the streets of London. He knew how to talk to possible witnesses, and had befriended too many of them for Jon to keep track of. Okay, so perhaps Martin was good at his job, or at least the people side of it.

He was also kind in a way that Jon was not used to. It was something that Jon had first noticed before moving to the Archives, when he would watch as Martin effortlessly moved from conversation to conversation, never losing track of anyone’s lives, always a thoughtful gift or kind word prepared. Even with him, who was too awkward to do much more than nod and mutter a quick ‘thanks’ when Martin appeared with a hot cup of tea, Martin never gave up. It had Jon taken some time to get used to this, to accept that being kind wasn’t just a role Martin played, and that he was genuinely just a good person. The time he spent with Martin contrasted sharply with how his grandmother had raised him. Jon had spent his childhood acutely aware that every nicety (however small) had a price. Compliments and affection were never freely given. No, they were all just transactions that Jon learned the true cost of later. If he did well at school, if he didn’t talk back, if he was quiet, if he wasn’t seen too much, if he didn’t ramble about his day, then, and only then, would she smile at him or cook something he liked. Martin’s kindness came with no such strings attached, and Jon loved him for it.

A problematic facet of Martin’s kindness though, was that he tended to express it physically as well. It wasn’t uncomfortable, not exactly. Or rather it was, but it wasn’t the touch itself that was uncomfortable, but how Jon could not keep it together whenever Martin touched him. Now that they worked together much more closely, Jon spent inordinate amounts of time calculating how someone who most definitely did not have a crush on their assistant might react to these casual touches. How should he react to Martin throwing an arm over his shoulder as their little Archival team headed out to lunch? And what should he say when Martin placed his hand upon his arm and asked him if he was sure he didn’t want to go home when it grew late? Or when he was half asleep at his desk and two hands fluttered at his shoulders to place a sweater over them? Or when Martin picked some dust off Jon’s hair after the Archivist had been ruffling through old statements? However much Jon carefully planned his reactions though, it never mattered. More often than not, he ended up losing his train of thought and having to find an excuse to turn away from Martin until his breathing steadied once more. 

His crush got so bad that after a particularly sleepless night he had messaged Georgie “Is resigning the only rational solution to escape this adorable man, or am I just tired???”   
But Georgie was used to his antics and had promptly sent back, “I don’t know, maybe fake your own death and run away to Thailand, and maybe then your crush will go away? That seems like the only thing a responsible adult could do.”  
So Georgie hadn’t been much help.

Neither had Tim and Sasha, when they had noticed how awkward Jon was around Martin. Initially they had put it down to Jon just being an awkward person overall (which wasn’t wrong), but after dissecting Jon and Martin’s interactions together, they had both come to the conclusion that something else was happening. Sasha had then emailed Jon a link to a compilation of ‘Cute Jim/Pam moments’ from The Office, with the subject line: “This could be you!!”. Tim, of course, had opted for a less discreet approach, and took great pleasure in dramatically winking at Jon whenever he was talking to Martin.

Jon was pretty sure being tortured would be less painful than this.

At least his one saving grace was that Martin didn’t seem to have noticed how Jon felt.

It was true, Martin hadn’t noticed how oddly Jon acted around him. Martin was much too busy worrying about how he behaved around Jon. Could Jon tell how much his hands had trembled when he’d draped a sweater over his shoulders? Could Jon see how warm his cheeks got in the (very) rare occasions that Jon complimented his research? Could Jon hear how rapidly Martin’s pulse raced whenever it was just the two of them in the Archives, working late into the night? 

Martin was pretty sure being tortured would be less painful than this.

At least his one saving grace was that Jon didn’t seem to have noticed how Martin felt.

**Author's Note:**

> aaa I needed to write some cute fluff so here this is!
> 
> Let me know what you think!  
> Your comments always make my day and encourage me to write more! <3


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